Multiple Monday morning accidents cause traffic delays on turnpike

Kansas Highway Patrol troopers and Leavenworth County medical crews were busy Monday morning dealing with multiple accidents on Interstate 70 east of the Tonganoxie and Eudora exit.

A dispatcher said that at 12:15 p.m., troopers reported the highway was clear. No major injuries were reported, she said.

Drivers reported the crashes were causing traffic problems between the Tonganoxie and Eudora exit and the Kansas Turnpike’s eastern terminal, which is 13 miles east of Lawrence.

Witnesses driving in the area reported seeing an accident near Bonner Springs in the eastbound lane where a vehicle went off the road. Several other accidents were reported on and off the highway west of there, possibly with vehicles rear-ending each other. Drivers via Twitter reported slick conditions on bridges Monday morning east of Lawrence.

A 31-year-old Ankeny, Iowa, man, Cristo Hinojos, was injured at 9:45 a.m. in one crash a mile west of the turnpike’s eastern terminal when a 2006 Pontiac car driven by Clayton Swann, 22, of Port Richey, Fla., rear-ended his 2006 Lexus.

In separate incidents, two others were injured in accidents one and two miles from the Lawrence service station.

A passenger of Marsha A. Smarker of Kansas City, Kan., 58-year-old Michael J. Whitfield, was injured in a 2005 Chevrolet SUV at 9:27 a.m. According to Kansas Turnpike Authority records, Smarker lost control of the SUV because of icy conditions and hit a barrier at milepost 210, one mile east of the Turnpike’s Lawrence service station.

Mary Ann St. John, 34, of Topeka, was also injured in yet another single-car accident one mile further east, at milepost 211, at 10 a.m. when she lost control of her 2002 Toyota and struck the barrier.

A KTA official said Monday night that no one was transported from the scene for medical attention in all three accidents.